The Building of a Nation, the Story of Tenshi.

[Kitsune]

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[Pat]

Kitsune a great start here and i am looking forward to more here and will see you next update - pat

[nedalezz]

Nice start...I actually live in Accra, Ghana! Btw, its Nigeria, not Nicaragua No biggie, your pics are nice, and the history is a very nice touch. Waiting to see more.

[bat]

Wonderful start there! Great pictures of your nice looking city!

[paroch]

Hello Kitsune,

That's an interesting start there.  It's a serious grid system you have put in place.  I think it's interesting to see the different styles of development and I often think of how I could incorporate different aspects into my city building.  I have to admit I'm not really a fan of such a big grid system - but after seeing your city I will give it a go in one of my cities.

It would be nice to have some closer shots, i.e. zoom in a bit so we can see the buildings a bit better.  It helps give a 'feel' for the city streets.  And as for custom content... my favourite residential buildings are Gascooker's UK series (available here on SC4D) - but they are VERY British.  May not fit in with what you are planning for your region.  For medium density residential I really like the buildings produced by the SFBT team (Andreas Roth and others). You'll find them on STEX - just type in SFBT in search and you'll see what they have.  Again, very European, so it depends what you're trying to achieve. 

Your low denisty areas have plenty oh R$$$ buildings so you must be keeping your sims happy!  I like the way you use the tennis courts to flank the edge of a block (although in RL the courts are more likely to be side by side instead of head to toe.

When I look at the walls in front of the highways and the railways I wonder what it would feel like to live inside one of the zones.  Maybe a bit claustrophobic?  You mention "Berlin Wall" and I can see why!  Still it is different and would probably foster a real sense of community inside each of the seperate 'zones'.

Downloading custom content can take ages (well, it takes me ages because once I start I can't stop) but if I only recommended two things it would be some seasonal woods / trees and some custom parks.  Plopping in some trees can give a different feel to your city (e.g. in front of the walls or around the rail junction) and the custom parks give you so much more options than the Maxis defaults. 
Links:
try jeronij's seasonal trees here:
http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=132

or Peg's seasonal woods here: (is it OK to post a likn to STEX?)  Indeed it is. -- Dustin (thundercrack83)
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=4515

And the BSC Parks base set here:
http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=437

I hope this is of use and I really do look forward to seeing more of Tenshi.

All the best,

paroch

[Kitsune]

--- Replies....... ---
patfirefghtr- Thanks! More will come......
nedalezz- Whoops  Too many loops of Hurricane Felix, combined with another country that starts with a N, and yeah, that'll happen 
bat- Thanks!
paroch- Ah thanks! I use another set of trees predominatly, it used to be how I did my highways before I found deadwoods sound walls. And the bsc parks, there located sprodiaclly across the city, but the downtown area uses something else that'll be seen in the next update. And, this city, and the next, will be grids, grids, and, erm, more grids - the point is to get two cities, then I can have story lines, hooray! 

--- Onto the Update....... ---


First picture tonight - a windy GLR route along the river, and, an airport terminal (that long building with the sky reflection). I've realized using these terminals that look sorta like long office blocks as a good way to not have to have a huge airport for every large city tile. If I could ever get that 1x1 grass lot that acts an international airport, this idea will prolly die, fast. Also seen next to that fake office block is the set of trees I use....


A shot of a residential zone with the Queens Highway running through. Also seen is something extremely common in my neck of the woods - a full parclo interchange. This here would be a B2 Parclo. I would love to do A4s, but I'll have to wait for the NWM for that......


One of the most busiest interchanges in the city currently (once I do the full CBD, I suspect that'll change). At one point 30,000 cars used this interchange, but these days its only 15K. As for that hydro pole, I have no clue why its there, or how it got there, and I'm too lazy to remove it. 

A prototype parclo, a B2, but a prototype that was never replicated cause it was too much of a pain to do. That building nearest the loop, that would be the census building, v2 by Ripplejet....


The rail line slicing through the northern reaches of the CBD. The city is currently undergoing an Environmental Assessment to eliminate the the street and road crossings in this area to allow for faster trains. Some underpasses would be built. No soundwalls as city law states that soundwalls are only required bordering low-d zones for railroads. Business' dislike the law, but there is no room to build now so screm em

The East Perimeter Highway, and the Eastern reaches of the northern CBD and suburbia. And oh, another trumpet, I sure love those Y on-ramps, life would be incomplete without them.   

------------------
Next Update- Next update will likely be the sky scraper district, the extensive park system within the sky scraper district that has prolly eaten up 5-6 hours of my life so far, with more to be eaten, and the local stadiums that has been built to date.

** Note to self, dont hit save instead of preview......

[Pat]

Kitsune i loved this update and the interchanges you did is great!!! and i cant wait to see the parks and the skyscrappers - pat

[thundercrack83]

Looks like you're off to a smashing start here, Kitsune! I can't wait to follow along and see what else you've got for us!

[paroch]

Hi Kitsune,

Nice update! You clearly put a lot of thought and effort into your development and those highway junctions in particular.  I'm gonna have to experiment with juntions other than the standard ones.

I really like the airport terminal building as an office block, it looks real good there.  And does it really act as an airport even without runways and other airport related stuff

I look forward to further updates.

[bat]

Wonderful new update! Great pictures of that highway!

[Kitsune]

... Turion Hits Two Milestones in One Night ...

(And the second milestone I was not expecting either - came out of the blue so to speak.......)

---Replies.......---
patfirefghtr- Thanks! And the 'Scrapers are coming tonight in a minor way.....
thundercrack83- Another Thanks, much appreciated.
paroch- Yep, it acts as an airport! You'll see that later in this update with the region view. Its a medium terminal with I think 130K capacity - cant remember what airport pack it came from, I have a few. 
bat- Thanks!

---Onto the Update.......

First shot, skyscrapers! First of three, a lot of Camelots in this one, and the Embassy Suites, despite being a stage 12 - still grow like weeds  Also notice my trick to keep the park radius good - raised parks. They are heavily extensive, and no matter what you do, there included in every downtown shot.....


This one, is located in the next large city tile, and shows off the residentials, the AVE-GLR, the river, and a few bridges. Couldnt have been bothered to download a bigger hospital....   

My apologies for that ballon - I didnt notice till now  . This shows the transistion from high rise to med-rise, and the Spadina Expressway that separates that too. Look close enough and you'll see, yep, more raised parks. This is the third large city tile to contain the high rises, and there are plenty of stage 15's in this shot.

Onto the sport complexes! This one here features the Tenshi National Tennis Center, currently home to the Tenshi Open, a key stop on all tennis circuits, and considered the "Unofficial Grand Slam" and part of the Master Series.

Football!! (yeah, I refuse to call it soccer - go France!). This stadium is home to the Turion Royal, and there home stadium - Stadium Turion Royal. It is however consider obsolete, as it only sits 40K fans, and for a city of this size, its a tad bit small. The cobblestone plaza has seen many celebrations, from National Wins on the Football circuit, to National Championships for the Turion Royal. Violent clashes though, are common after games between the Royal's arch rivals - the Harbour City Jackals.

More Football! This one is home to the University of Turion Football Club, a not so great football team. The stadium is all benches - aluminum benches, which is the hot African Sun, can make it most unpleasent. There are some proposals for a new covered stadium, but the University isnt interested - yet. To the right of the stadium are the University's Dorm (they grew that way).


Next up is the University's Arena - home to the University's Basketball team, which has had a little more success then the university's football team, but not much.


Next update I'll post a bigger picture All I have left to zone is 3 large city tiles, 3 medium tiles. 2 Medium Tiles will be opened just for me to put a bypass through. Also, this picture contains both milestones hit today - the first one is the getting that far in the city, the second, and the most surprising is the 3,012,233 sims in this city. This was hit when my middle tile jumped 120K in 4 game months while I was snapping pictures. Needless to say, I was extremely pleased.


Last one - poor mans Transit Map. Next one I'll label the highways, and maybe the avenues too. Also, you can see just how long those raise parks stretch. Took me eons to lay it out, and I'll have to spend more eons for the southern tiles.

------------------
Next update  -- The small industrial area, the farms, the power area, and maybe whatever progress I make on those southern tiles.......

[bat]

Fantastic new pictures of your city! Looking forward to the next update!

[paroch]

Nice update Kitsune,

Skyscraper city looks pretty impressive.  I can see the parks that stretch between the two roads - is that what you mean by "raised parks"?

And over 3,000,000 residents - wow.  I've only once got past 1,000,000.

And I like the stadia, I must remember to download some more myself!

Look forward to more.

[sebes]

Wow interesting story, nice pictures, and increadible how you get so many residents already. Great football stadiums!

[Kitsune]

Next Full Update will be Monday or Tuesday! So I'll do Replies, and two photos - one of the region, one of a NIMBY (Don't we all love Nimby's? grr...)

---Replies.......---
bat- Thanks! Next update (what I call an update.....) will be either Monday or Tuesday, hoorah!
paroch- Thanks! Again, I think its because, to put it plainly, I cheat! I use demand mods, a money cheat, and 0% taxes.....
sebes- Thanks! (sheesh I say that a lot.....  )  Football stadiums, yes, for someone who has only left Canada once (and that was a trip to Florida) I sure love football - and it drives people nuts that I refuse to call soccer.  And oh, cause the Mens soccer team is so bad, Vive la France! For the woman's team - what a heart break that was in China. Oh so close 

--- Mini-Update ---


An updated region shot - click the image to get the whole 15.4 inch wide screen impression! And notice the population, and compare it to the last shot - its the reason for a lack of update, I've been busy. 


Now the bloody NIMBY! Residents complained loudly about a section of the expressway on the waterfront, and brought the city to court to stop the expressway from being built. They won  . So the the expressway was forced to abandoned here with a half finished interchange that serves as the exit and entrance for the expressway. The interesting thing is, further down the avenue, the expressway begins again.  Oh well, just a small section missing. For those keeping count, thats three canceled expressway projects due to loud NIMBYs......

And one another note, the owrXowr interchange, yeah, thats under the expressway. I was pleasantly surprised to see it work!

------------------

Next update- We will skip the industry for another day. I'll do a detailed shot of those three bottom tiles - I'll have that other big tile on the waterfront done by Monday or Tuesday. Now you get the delay .

[Kitsune]

So, my gridlines are stuck on for some reason  ...................

If at any point, you get too bored (granted, I know some do  ), just take Exit 1 on the Spadina Expressway.........


Grab a Parking Spot......


Get in line and get Admission......


And Enjoy the Rides!


And if those are too scary, you can try the smaller rides.

Otherwise, enjoy the tour! Today we take a look at some of the colonial era items.


The city's first ever subway line, circa 1895. Some of it has since been covered, but a large stretch of the line is still open air - save for the stations of course.


The city's train station, with modern development ever encroaching upon it, even in it somewhat. (censored) Boulevard* runs in front of it, another sign of the colonial times when the Spaniards briefly ruled the area, before being overrun by the French. The station opened in 1880, and it is said a certain rail station in Europe copied the design.........


And finally, City Hall. Said to be one of the jewels of Tenshi, the Hall, and the sprawling estate it sits on, is a key tourism draw for Turion, and is situated on the Atlantic Coast, and only a few blocks due south of Turion Central Station. The designer of the Hall was lost in the great fire of 1872. The City hall itself has sat there since 1863.

Finally, we get to some great news! Nado Xermo won the Nation's first ever gold medal in the Simlympic Games a few days ago, in the sport of swimming. He came home to a hero's welcome.


This will surely help the nation, the province, and the city in there bid for the next Simlympics!



The logo was designed by Stickiboy05 over at Simtrop, thank you!

Now, I am out of town, have been for the past week, hence why updates are a little rocky. I'll be home briefly in October around the Canadian Thanksgiving, and then back out till around the end of October, so updates will be up and down, its the internet thats the issue, as I have a a laptop that handles the game very nicely.


Next update will be this weekend or next week for sure, so just hang on till then.

[paroch]

Nice Update Kitsune.

I like the parking lot - just make sure to remember the row number!!!

I have built a theme park in one of my cities.  I have to say that the quality of the BATs and Lots is very very good.  But to me they just dont feel right in the game.  Maybe it's something to do with the scale (the carousels are HUGE).    Maybe it's that Theme Parks have been done to death by other games.  Maybe it's that when you build a park it looks a bit too square. What do you think?

City Hall is very good - nice big green.

Big congrats on the Simlympic gold and very good luck with your Simlympic bid.  It's something I'd like to do one day but the standard of bids is very high - not sure I would do it justice, so all the best.

[bat]

Wonderful new update there! Great pictures!

[Kitsune]

between RL and my Simlympic bid, I've been extremely busy.

With that said, here is the Simlympic Bid in all its glory:

Official Bid Book (1,460kb pdf)

Hope you enjoy, its fairly informative.